The Ops Team
by sheppythevolus
Summary: "Those two meerkats you got working in Ops keep getting stranger." A collection of Neric-centric oneshots. Basically everything that comes to mind - all genres will be covered. Requests are welcome!
1. Hit

**Author's Note: Hey all! I've been binge watching NCIS LA and had a few dozen inspirations. If the full-length story fizzles out I will post as much as I can under this title but, my intent is to make a conclusion to the season finale before the series is renewed in September.**

**This will be the place for all the oneshots I have polished but, can't fit into the aforementioned story. Posts will not be regular by any stretch of the imagination. Hope you enjoy!**

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He heard the impact before he felt it. Right in the chest, taking the air from his lungs when it hit. His gasp made Nell spin around, and when she saw what had happened the blood left her face entirely.

"Nell I…" He started before falling to his knees. It was impossible not to look down at the point of impact on his chest - right where his heart ought to be. "I'm sorry."

"No. No, no no, don't be sorry. You're going to be alright." She urged him, closing the distance between them and holding him upright.

He looked up at her, seeing the waver in her beady hazel eyes hit him harder than the impact to his chest a moment ago. "I'll just slow you down. Go. Get out of here."

"I'm not leaving without you, Wolfram."

"You have to!" He lifted his arms from his sides and grabbed her forearms, pushing her hands off him. "Did you see the shooter? 'Cause I didn't. If you don't get out of here right now they'll get you too."

Without her support, Eric let himself fall to the ground. He fought the sleepy haze instilled by the soft grass soothing his aching muscles, urging himself to keep an eye on her while she got away. They had been on the run for half an hour, smoked out of their hiding place by a barrage of shots only missing them by a few inches. Ever since they had been running, ducking, crawling and hiding, trying to get away from the shooters. Try as he might he found himself drifting off, unable to hold his eyes open.

The next thing he knew he felt a tug on his arm and when he looked up and saw her trying to drag him. He wanted to pull his arm from her grasp but, he couldn't, instead he tried to convince her to leave him. "Nell. I can't move. Even if I could they would just get me again. You've got to go on without me, I'll be fine."

"Fine?" She replied, bewildered by his attempts at self-sacrifice. "I don't care if I have to carry you out, I won't be fine unless you're right here with me. You're not giving up on me. Not now, not ever."

"I'll never give up on you. But just this once I need you to listen to me." He tried to make his weak, raspy voice sound like an order. "Go. Get out of here, Rockstar. I'll see you on the other side."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

He turned his head to the source of a rustle in the bushes just in time to see Deeks and Kensi jump out from behind a tree, paintball guns trained on Nell. She shrieked and jumped into the bushes but, it was already too late, in a barrage of paint filled pellets she was down and they had lost for the third time in a row.

"God, you two are dramatic." Kensi remarked, wrinkling her nose.

Eric rolled over and got to his feet, then turned away from the pair and found his partner in the bushes. He held out an arm for her and she gripped his wrist forcefully. When he pulled her up they looked at each other a moment before bursting out laughing.

"The breathless 'I'll see you on the other side' was a great touch." She remarked, lifting the visor on her helmet and wiping her eyes with her forearm. If she wasn't such a great intelligence analyst he would have said her true calling was acting.

"You sold the 'you're not giving up on me' line very well."

"That was totally serious! I can't believe you let me get shot down by those two while you laid there like an idiot."

"Those are the rules! One hit and you're down."

"So you'll let your bestest friend get gunned down because you're afraid of the consequences of breaking a rule?"

"First, Deeks is my best friend, right Deeks?" Eric turned to see Deeks and Kensi were already walking away.

She gave him a pat on the shoulder and leaned against him. "I'm your best friend and you know it."

"Hmph. Second, it was your idea to cut through ambush city," he said, gesturing to the dense shrubbery around them. "This was entirely your fault."

"What, you'd rather just sit in that hollowed out motor home playing tic tac toe?"

"Yes. If you hadn't bragged so loud about winning we would still be there."

"How do you even lose at tic tac toe? At any given time there is less than eight things I can do."

"Only you would be competitive at tic tac toe. Congratulations, you won, your congratulatory basket of fruit is in the mail."

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**Author's Note: Not terrible, right? Any request left in a review or a PM will be taken very seriously! **

**Also reviews make me happy :)**


	2. Field Agent

**Author's Note: Hah! Two in one day. This is sort of an alternate take to when Eric told her she was never leaving Ops again - but it doesn't really fit there :\**

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"Why do you want to be a field agent so badly?"

"Because I want to help people."

"You can – you do help people from here, where it's safe."

"And what if I can do more good out there? Sam, G, Deeks, Kensi, they're all good but they couldn't hack their way out of a paper bag."

"When have they ever had that problem?"

"Don't you get it Eric? I don't want to wait until it's too late to stop some guy from hurting innocent people."

"And what if saving them means you can't save yourself? How many people won't make it because we don't have the prodigal legend of intelligence analysts on our side anymore?"

"You got along fine before I showed up."

"Don't you ever talk like that again – like you're replaceable." Eric felt his voice catch in his throat. He wanted to stop right then and there, hell, he didn't want to have this argument to begin with but she was so suicidally committed to this eventual goal of being a field agent. Of becoming Hetty. "How many times have you saved the day?"

"I'm done talking about this."

"I'm not!"

"This isn't your decision, stop trying to force me to change my mind!" She shouted. Her face was red and her eyes gleamed in the light, it was an image of her he wouldn't soon forget.

Suddenly he wasn't frustrated anymore, he wasn't scared for her or even angry. He could have brought up Dom or how she almost died when she went out in the field but, he didn't. All he wanted was to stop fighting. "I… I know. I wasn't trying to force you."

"That's not what it sounded like." She grumbled between clenched teeth.

"I just… you're the best part of my day. Like, most days. Most of the time." He trailed off, almost muttering by the end. "Pretty much all the time." He turned his attention to his flip flips, waiting for her to punch him or something. "Sorry."

She sighed. "It's okay, Eric." He heard her shoes tap the floor as she walked toward him. "I shouldn't have shouted. I want to do this, and I can't really explain why other than I'm good at it."

He looked up at her. She was below him but, he still felt like he was looking up. "You're amazing. It's just scary."

"Yeah, I know." Her voice was completely bereft of the enthusiasm it had just minutes ago.

"But if it's what you want to do, do it. Don't let me stop you."

A small smile tugged at her lips before she closed the distance between them and wrapped those steely little arms around him tight. "It is."

He always enjoyed her hugs, the way her small body conformed against his and how she would rest her head against his chest. She could always put him at ease, even when he was afraid for her life. "You'll be great. Just check your corners, don't hesitate. Be smart." He trailed off, knowing how useless his video game advice was. "Be you."

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**Author's Note: Reviews! They make my day :)**


	3. Marv

**Author's Note: Hey folks, sorry for the hiatus. Before you ask yourself why Nell is at Eric's place, it's because she is helping him get ready for a Dinner and a Movie night with the rest of the OSP team.**

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She had left him to separate eggs while she prepared the pie crust. Technically it was cake crust, unless cheesecake is actually pie in which case… it doesn't matter. The point is, she found something that demanded an explanation. "Hey Eric?"

"Yeah?" He replied, waiting to turn around until he had separated the last egg.

"Why was this in your freezer?" She asked, holding up a vacuum bagged pinky mouse. It was hard to keep the girl inside her from freaking out a little bit - for some reason her friend kept a late term mouse embryo in his freezer, between the ice cream and the raisin bread.

"Oh, uh, I've been meaning to tell you…"

"What? That you eat mice?"

"No. You know that room in my basement across from the washer and dryer?"

"Uh, I guess. Why?" She didn't really remember, the only time she had ever been down there was to put their clothes in the dryer after they were caught in a rainstorm and while Eric made them both hot chocolate.

"There's someone I want to show you. Come on." He punctuated the statement by putting down the last egg he had to separate and turning to the sink to wash his hands.

She looked at him on the edge of bewildered for a moment, standing still and pondering what on earth he was talking about. "What exactly do you mean by someone?"

"My Savannah Monitor, Marv."

"Your what?" She knew of monitor lizards, but the reply was reflexive because she still couldn't believe what she was hearing. Granted, he had a lot of extra space in the house but, she had never heard of someone keeping a monitor lizard as a pet. She was pretty sure she remembered watching something on the discovery channel about them having teeth and eating crocodile eggs whole.

"He's a lizard, about four feet long – two without the tail – I've been meaning to introduce you to him but, I guess I've been putting it off a while now." He led her toward the door to the basement before adding. "Don't put down the mouse."

"I uh, okay." She responded blankly, staring dumbly a moment before following him.

By the time she reached the bottom of the stairs Eric was already waiting at the door he mentioned. When he opened the door she peered in as she walked over to see a newspaper-coated floor. The room was devoid of ordinary furniture but, it was about the size of a typical bedroom. There was a rough assemblage of driftwood in the far corner and a number of large half logs around the periphery. In the far corner of the room was a pair of bowls and just to the left of them was a rock beneath a heat lamp. Bathing in the warm red glow was a four foot long, sandy brown and dappled yellow scaled lizard.

When Eric entered the lizard opened its eyes and looked around. Seeming to recognize him the lizard got off its basking rock and trotted toward him at a fairly respectable speed. Nell felt herself jump reflexively.

"Hey Marv." Eric greeted the lizard cheerily, crouching down like she would expect him to greet a dog. He scratched the lizard behind the 'ear' which it appeared to appreciate before it turned its attention to the packaged mouse she was holding.

"Oh, he sees that you have something for him." Eric observed, looking up at her.

"I uh," she paused, trying to calm herself. "What do I do?"

"Well, you could take it out of the package and give it to him or you can wait for him to try and crawl up your leg." At first she thought he was kidding but the lizard was already at her feet and eyeing the mouse. If she wasn't sure he was smelling the air with that tongue she would swear he was licking his chops like a hungry dog.

"I don't want to touch it."

"It's frozen and sterilized. Relax." He rose and took a step toward her, reaching for the package.

"Fine, fine." She replied, pulling the mouse from his reach. The film pulled off like a cheese string wrapper and she fished out the tail of the baby mouse, trying to minimize her contact with it and distance her fingers from where the lizard was going to bite.

"That's right. Just drop it on the ground, his teeth _are _pretty small but he can still do a number to a certain technical operator's finger if you're not paying attention."

She smiled at the comment and dropped the mouse as instructed. Marv reacted almost immediately, spinning around and snatching the frozen mouse with its jaws a lot faster than she was expecting. When he bit down she heard the mouse's bones snap like dry twigs and surmised that Eric was not in fact kidding about the strength of its jaws.

"Why? Why do you have one of these for a pet? Isn't that like keeping an alligator?"

"What? No. Marv is full grown, and he is very docile so long as you don't try and step on him." Eric replied, crouching down again. She watched curiously as the lizard swallowed its meal whole and greeted him sort of like a cat would, rubbing his side against Eric's hand. Eric responded by scratching the area momentarily and softly blowing away a scale he had scratched loose. "He just molted a few days ago so he is feeling very friendly – he wants me to help with the stubborn old scales that won't come off."

"Cool." Nell replied honestly, stepping over to Eric's side and crouching next to him. She stuck out her hand, mimicking him and Marv turned and nuzzled her hand. She recoiled out of reflex but, stopped herself halfway when she saw that Marv seemed completely at ease.

"Relax. I've only been bit once and it was because I tried to dangle food in front of his mouth." He retracted his hand and showed her a row of fine tooth marks on his pointer finger she had never noticed before. "He's faster than he looks."

"Does he like being pet?"

"Who doesn't?" Eric replied, turning red almost immediately. "Pets, I mean."

She couldn't help but smile at her partner as she ran her hand along Marv's rough, scaly back. It was a novel texture, not unlike a cat's tongue, and not quite as smooth as she was expecting from holding a gecko at the pet store when she was in high school.

"When did you decide you'd rather have a lizard room than a guest bedroom?"

"About three years ago when I realized the only guest I had ever had would have refused to sleep in the basement anyway."

"Callen?"

"Callen."

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**Author's note: I don't know where this came from, I really don't. Sort of based on when my ex met my bearded dragon a few years back.**


	4. Firing Range

**Author's Note: I don't think Eric avoids guns because he doesn't know how to use them, I mean come on he works with Callen.**

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"Come on Eric, it's a range. You'll be fine."

"It's not that I'm afraid of getting hurt, I -"

"You just don't want to. I know, give it a try anyway."

"I have tried. I wasn't very good and I didn't enjoy it."

"Then why did you come all the way here?"

"You're very persuasive."

"Damn right. Now pick a pistol and empty it on one of those targets."

He sighed. "Yessum."

Though Nell was fairly insistent on helping him she quickly realized that he did, in fact, know how to handle and fire a pistol. He invited her criticism by picking a purple 9mm but, she seemed utterly unamused. Inserting the clip he ran through the mental checklist he had been taught by Callen; hands away from the slide, finger off the trigger, square up, feet flat, barrel perpendicular to your shoulders, safety off, one eye closed, slow breaths, finger on the trigger.

Even though no one would accept it, he wasn't afraid or even ignorant of the use of firearms. It was their power to take lives in an instant that he didn't like. He was opposed to the idea of a switch that could end someone's life because he didn't think he could ever be confident enough in its necessity in any given situation. It was this dilemma that gave him pause when aiming down the barrel. It was this dilemma that made his hands shake to the point that he just wanted to put down the gun and do something – anything else.

Instead he squeezed the trigger, more to get her off his back about it than anything else. He didn't jump at the sound, but she did. He emptied the clip in barely ten seconds, all falling within the outline but, only one nicked the center of the target.

"Not bad!" She yelled in his ear, admiring the now mangled target.

"I told you, it's not like you're the first person to take me to a range."

With any luck she would be the last.

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**Author's note: Thoughts? Some of these will have some actual substance eventually, I promise.**

**Please review :)**


	5. Gym

**Author's note: That will be it for today, I'm afraid. I'm still nowhere near deciding how many of these I'm going to make.**

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He had grown to enjoy the gym more and more. After a stressful case - or in some cases as a break from a stressful case – he would go find some gym nearby just to be around normal people doing normal things. It took longer than he was willing to admit but, he did eventually work up the courage to use the weight machines. It wasn't like high school any more - where people would stop, stare and tease, in fact it seemed like all the big, scary guys in the weight room were too infatuated with their own reflections to even notice him.

It hadn't even been a particularly bad day, something about the shooting range just had him feeling like he needed to unwind in a way only pushing and lifting heavy things could accomplish. All-Day-Fitness was becoming his favorite out of his rotation, the drive was easy and Sam had recommended it though, Eric had never actually seen the SEAL work out here.

He had never actually summoned the courage to talk to a girl he saw at the gym, but on this day in particular one making rounds on the track caught his attention. She was _fast_. He had gone through four machines in the last twenty minutes and she still appeared to be making laps in under 40 seconds. The fact that she was short, cute, lean, and had perfect (hypnotic) running technique may have also contributed to him looking for her every minute or so.

After he got started on the military press he noticed that she got off the track and seemed to be headed for a water fountain only a few feet away. He tried to convince himself to get up and head to the same water fountain but, instead he settled for increasing the weight about twenty pounds out of his comfort zone.

_You're pathetic, Tungsten. Go talk to her._

Unsurprisingly, he didn't. The heavy set was grueling, but he managed to endure without making an ass of himself. When he looked up from the machine he couldn't find her, if she had gone for water she had done so quickly and disappeared again.

He lifted the weight again, determined to get at least three sets before moving over to the stationary bike.

"I've never liked that machine."

His chest seized from the surprise, causing him to let go of the handles and drop the weight with an earsplitting clatter. Even though he knew what was happening he reflexively clutched his chest. It was Nell's voice. He pulled out an earbud and got ready to scold her before stopping when he recognized the running outfit; red shorts, a white tank top and her hair bound behind her head in a ponytail.

"Wh- what have I told you about sneaking up on people!" He spouted, breathing heavily.

"Yeah, yeah, death by fright. What are you doing at my gym?"

She wasn't even out of breath. No less than twenty minutes at that pace and she had cooled down in under a minute. Obviously, she came here frequently. "Your gym? Sam told me to use a rotation."

"As far as anyone outside of work is concerned I work for a news producer. Going to a bunch of different gyms would only arouse more suspicion."

"That still doesn't explain why you had to sneak up on me."

"I wanted to see if you'd jump." She replied cheekily.

"Well congratulations. And yeah, I like this machine, once you get the technique down it's a lot easier on the neck than using a bar."

"But it's so awkward."

"Where do you put your starting position? You should start the arc here." Eric replied, demonstrating the proper grip and position on the inclined bench.

"I think so. Get up, let's see." She gestured for him to get off the bench and she moved to the height adjustment. After lowering it by three pegs she laid down on the bench and squared up.

After examining her starting position he got ready to correct her. "You aren't as small as you think you are. Let go." He instructed, leaning in and lifting the bar away from her chest, one peg higher was probably going to be sufficient. "Try that."

She squared up again and this time tried to push the bar. It barely budged before she dropped the weight, grimacing at the effort. "You lift all that?"

"I uh, yeah I guess so."

"Hmm, you're stronger than you look."

"How strong do I look?"

Instead of responding she just smiled at him before getting off the bench and lowering the weight.

"Just make sure you start the arc with your elbows squared, it isn't a bench press."

"Yeah, that is better." She got off the bench, then looked him up and down quickly before smiling. "I'm going to go make dinner, I'll see you around, Wolfram."

"See you!" He replied, stepping aside and watching her sashay toward the change room. _Maybe this is as good of time as any to pick a gym and stick with it._

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**Author's note: Seriously though, lots of people start their Military Press too low and then complain about how it's uncomfortable.**

**What do you want to see more of? Less of? LMK with a review or a PM!**

**P.S. Actually shippy chapters coming soon.**


	6. Save Me

**Author's Note: GUYS! I'm sorry this took so long. I've been struggling with the oneshots to be perfectly honest, but I've got a half dozen on the go now.**

**rinna: I really liked writing that chapter, I'm glad you agree. **

**Hoosier65: It's a pretty full beard but, it's entirely spikes! They are really cool looking. Thanks!**

**NCISnewbie: That chapter was really hard to write; I'm glad no one questioned why they were going to a private gym when they have one at work :)**

**Lightning's Halo: Would you believe me if I said I do too? :P**

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The vibrating of his phone woke him in the middle of the night. Looking up he saw that the clock on his night stand read 2:05am, way too early for Deeks to be telling him to get ready. He reached over the side of the bed for his phone and saw that familiar picture he took of Nell blowing a bubble on his screen. His half-asleep mind was already racing about why she would be calling him at this hour.

"Eric?" She whispered, her voice barely audible over the music in the background.

"Nell? What the hell?"

"Sorry!" She groveled, which was unusual. Actually, calling him in the middle of the night was unusual - opening with 'sorry'? That was unheard of. "I need you to pick me up."

He groaned, rolling over in bed knowing full well he wasn't going to say no. "Ugh. Where are you?"

"The Shore."

He remembered the cocktail bar she was talking about, Kensi had mentioned going there with some of her friends the previous week. "You can't get a cab?"

"I've called twice in the last hour, they still haven't come to get me."

With that he swung his legs over the edge of the bed. "Alright, I'm coming. You owe me at least six for this."

"I'll get you twelve."

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He pulled in the front as instructed, though she wasn't waiting for him like she said she would be. The lounge was off the highway which even at almost half past two in the morning got him a half dozen angry honks for taking a scooter into a sixty zone.

Just outside the front of the lounge there was a free parking spot where he stopped and got out his phone.

_"__Where are you? I'm at the front, between the Jeep and the Corolla."_

Before he even had a chance to take off his helmet she responded. _"Can you come in?"_

_"__Give me a minute." _He replied, taking off his helmet and hanging it on the handlebar. By the time he made it to the entrance of the club he was intercepted by a bouncer the size of a linebacker.

"ID, please." He rumbled. The music behind him was blissfully quiet, considering what he anticipated based on the phone call. _Maybe this won't be so bad, _he thought, _certainly an improvement over that place Ira picked for his birthday._

After appearing satisfied with his ID the bouncer then held out his hand. "Cover's $10."

"I'm just picking up a friend."

"Then tell him to come out."

"She told me to come in."

"Then that'll be $10."

With a groan he paid the man. Once he made it through the second door he quickly reevaluated the place. It was _exactly_ like the last club Ira and the gang had tried to drag him to. The venue looked like some bizarre combination of an Irish pub and an open air restaurant, lacking of course the open roof. Along the far wall was a stage where a teenager sat next to his laptop, bobbing his head to whatever was playing on his headphones as he occasionally fumbled with the sound system controls in front of him. There were probably thirty different tables and booths, but at this hour most were either abandoned or occupied by a single guy or girl who was clearly waiting for a cab too.

As luck would have it he found Nell almost immediately, she was facing away from him on a bar stool next to a girl he had never seen before and some guy who was leaning in far closer than Nell would ordinarily allow.

"Nell!" He yelled, even though he knew there was no way she would hear him from across the room. As he walked briskly over to her, he noticed that the guy was turned toward her and talking with his hands, it looked like he was trying to explain a fight or something similar. Nell was on her phone and not really looking at the guy while he spoke. When Eric felt his phone notify him of another text Eric tried yelling for her again. "Nell!"

This time she heard him. She turned her shoulders and when she saw him her face lit up. The guy looked up from his hands in time to see her squeeze by and meet Eric a few feet short of the bar.

"Eric!" She hailed him enthusiastically.

He opened his mouth to respond but, when she suddenly hugged him he completely forgot what he had intended to say. Locking her hands together behind him, she squeezed the air out of his lungs; the familiar embrace made him freeze for a few seconds before he realized that he should hug her back instead of standing there frozen. Eventually she lifted her head off his shoulder and whispered.

"Can you play along for a minute?"

"Only if it gets us out of here, I'm supposed to hit the waves with Deeks in five hours."

Instead of responding she broke the hug and grabbed him by his wrist, towing him toward the bar.

"Gary, this is my boyfriend, Eric. Eric, Gary." Eric nodded before Nell's attention shifted to the girl that was on her right. "Beth, I'm afraid he's an early riser. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

Beth nodded and Gary still hadn't really acknowledged what had happened in any way. Nell hovered a moment as if she wasn't sure what to do with herself before Eric whispered in her ear.

"Can we go now?"

"Yes, let's."

They made their way out of the lounge in a hurry, though it was actually Nell who seemed most eager to leave. "Friends of yours?" Eric asked as she passed the bouncer and got outside.

"Friends of Rose. Next time I see her I'm going to smack her I swear…"

"Ditched you for some guy?"

"Not even! She wanted to go to another bar, I wanted to go home. She stuck around while I waited for the taxi that wasn't coming but, eventually I just told her to go without me. Gary and Beth thought they'd keep me company; Beth is one of Rose's friends and Gary is her brother who tagged along – because apparently that's not weird to some people. Also, he wouldn't leave me alone the entire night."

"So why not tell them I was here twenty minutes ago and wait outside?"

"Because _someone_ gave him my number. He needed to think I have a boyfriend."

"You sound like you've done this before."

"Not since college. Didn't think guys like Gary existed outside rez."

"Yeah." Eric cleared his throat. "Alright, so you're options for the night are crash on my couch or take the scooter to your place and get it back to me at some point before work Monday. If I drop you off I'm going to get like two hours of sleep before Deeks gets me."

"Oh, uh, alright. How comfortable is your couch?"

"It's as bit soft but, I've fallen asleep there and not regretted it."

"Good enough for me." She grabbed the second helmet and was about to pull it over her head when she stopped. Eric turned toward his bike but, just before he hit the kickstand she interrupted him. "And Eric?" He spun around to see her smiling sweetly. "Thanks."

When she got up on her tip toes to kiss him on the cheek he couldn't help but return the smile. "You bet, Rockstar."

**Author's note: I'm trying to work in Deeks calling him 'Mayor of the Friend Zone' at some point; after all, she said herself he's like a brother. Well, I don't know about your family but my sister would never kiss me on the cheek for saving her from some creep in a lousy bar at 2am.**


	7. Surprise

**Author's Note: ANNOUNCEMENT TIME! Please check out my story 'Shadows', it's a coherent story picking up after the end of season 5.**

**I'm still pretty uncomfortable writing from Nell's perspective but, switching the characters didn't really make sense to me. Who can guess what the surprise is? Let me know with a review :) **

**Lighting's Halo: I'm glad :)**

**ncisnewbie: Idk about a direct sequel - how about something short like Nell waking up alone in his house and snooping? Idk, depends if I am struck with inspiration.**

**Hoosier65: I got a good laugh out of that; in her drunkest state my sis might, ****_might_**** hug me as thanks.**

**Guest: That entire chapter was inspired by my memory of those scenes, if anyone finds the episode (I forgot a long time ago), let me know. **

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He had never been so excited to get an email notification in his entire life. The entire day every little vibration from his phone just about had him jump from his seat. Finally he got the one he was waiting for; it was from USPS, they left a package in his sunroom as instructed. A few seconds after reading the notification he already knew what he was going to do for the rest of the night.

"Hey, Nell?" He inquired, looking up from the island to find her at her computer.

"Yeah?"

"You busy later?"

She looked up at the roof for a few seconds, something he had come to associate with her being stressed out. "I don't think I'll be taking coffee break at the climbing wall with the rest of the team, if that's what you're asking."

"No, uh, I mean after work."

"Hmm." She hummed, looking over to him finally. "Only if you make me food."

"I can do that." He tried to contain his smile. It had taken him weeks and more than a few favors to get his hands on one, and it wouldn't have been the same if she wasn't there too.

"Can you make those enchiladas again?"

"I'd have to go get mild salsa for yours – unless you're okay with tomato paste or something." He replied, evidently remembering what happened last time. Suffice to say she tried to tough it out, apparently she decided that night that she had something to prove to the part time surfer; she regretted that twice in the span of 12 hours.

"Why didn't you get the salsa on our way here?"

"How was I supposed to know?" He jibed back.

"I want salsa." She groaned, dragging out the last vowel and smiling as he visibly conceded. As much as she didn't want him to think she was manipulative, there were times when it was just too easy.

"Fine, I'll go get some. There's something I want to show you first, though. Close your eyes." He instructed.

She gave him her best '_are you serious?_' look. "I hate surprises."

"You'll like this one. Sit" He gestured at the couch. "And no peeking!"

"You know I'll peek." She joked, watching him ignore her as he turned to his laptop and opened up some kind of media file. Without the expected retort she decided to close her eyes as instructed.

After a couple keystrokes and a short pause she heard cutting and tearing of cardboard before he approached her with steps he probably thought were silent. If it was anyone else she would have peeked a dozen times by now but, she was willing to play by the rules for him. Something had him as excited as a kid on Christmas morning and she couldn't lie to herself and say it wasn't infectious.

She felt him wrap something around the top of her head, he manipulated her hair to get some kind of strap over the back of her skull and something plastic clamped around her eyes like a huge pair of snowboarding goggles.

"I have a guess." She joked, knowing full well what was going on. Some sort of sensory deprivation prank; he was going to put black goggles and ear muffs on her and then try to scare her when she pulled them off or something.

"Shush. And keep your eyes closed." He whispered pointedly.

"How do you know they're not open already?"

Instead of responding he put his headphones over her ears. For a few seconds she didn't hear anything but, then she heard the tell-tale beep of audio being unmuted.

"Okay, you can open your eyes." His voice was barely audible over the sound of her own heart beating.

When she opened her eyes she was greeted by a screen covering almost her entire field of vision. She brought her hands to her eyes and felt the contraption wrapped around her head, which was when she really realized what was going on.

"Oh my god – is this?!"

"Yeah. Got it in the mail about four hours ago."

"How the hell did you get one?" She took one cup of the headphones off her head so she could actually hear him, it was disorienting enough not being able to see him.

"You don't want to know." He replied in a low, almost shameful tone.

She felt the corners of her lips curl upward. "Hetty?"

"Hetty."

"I think the demo is like four minutes, want to stick around while I grab that salsa?"

"Do you have the SDK?" She asked, taking the visor off.

"It's on my laptop."

"Then yes. What's the password?"

"Uh, one sec I'll make you an account." He replied, walking toward his laptop.

"Oh come on, afraid I'll find your porn stash?"

He blushed but, she didn't think it was from the mention of porn. "Fine." He replied unenthusiastically. "The password's uh, _ununoctium118_."

She felt funny just then - a tingling in her extremities like he had just hugged her or something. He looked at her uneasily for a few seconds before smiling sheepishly and turning to leave her alone in his house.

It wasn't until she heard the soft putter of his scooter pulling out of his driveway that she realized she hadn't moved a muscle since he said that. "Why on earth would he pick that for a password?" She asked rhetorically, though a tiny, optimistic voice in the back of her head knew the answer.


	8. Ditched

**Author's Note: Sorry for the absence! The flu made a valiant attempt at killing me over the last week or so but, I'm back on solid foods and that means I'm healthy enough to write :)**

* * *

He had only been waiting five minutes before she pulled into the gravel lot, her ordinarily bright red Mini dusted with sand and gravel from the journey. Sam had invited them all out to come rappelling with him and Michelle, apparently this was the best place in all of California to do it. Even though everyone was initially excited to come, eventually the guest list was whittled down to the two of them, Sam and Deeks. The idea of Sam and Deeks hanging from a cliff face together had Eric awake the night before like a kid on Christmas Eve.

When the door to her car opened he greeted her. "You made it!" Eric exclaimed, lowering his phone as his partner got out of her car. It wasn't like her to arrive late, though he attributed that to her night out with Kensi. She greeted him with a bright smile while swinging the door shut behind her back. "Of course I made it. Wasn't Deeks supposed to drive you?" She replied while substituting her yellow shaded driving glasses for a darker pair.

"Had to take Monty to the vet for stitches, apparently he cut his lip on a bone." Eric replied, flipping through his phone to find her the picture Deeks had sent an hour earlier. "Kind of looks like a murder scene, right?" He offered her the picture of Deeks' living room with blood all over the carpet, floor, and Monty's bed.

With the glare it took her a few seconds to be able to see the screen. He could tell when it came into focus because her brows shot up immediately. "Oh my god! Is he okay?"

"Yeah, Deeks says he put the muzzle on, wrapped his snout in paper towel and is carting him down to the vet now." Eric chuckled, debating making a remark about how that would never happen with Marv. Before he had a chance to say anything Nell looked down and grabbed her phone from her pocket.

She wrinkled her nose at what she read and there was definitely some hesitation before she spoke up. "Well, more bad news; Sam isn't coming either."

"What? This was his idea from the start!" Eric replied, trying to contain his frustration.

After a moment Nell spoke up again. "So, what do you want to do instead?"

"I don't know, I mean, there's a beach about ten minutes that way." He said, pointing down the hill they had just driven up. As Nell looked where he pointed he started to walk slowly toward the cliff edge they had intended to drop from. To the north of them was the 'baby cliff' that Sam had described, a hill in the middle of the cliff with a face about ten feet tall – just enough to dangle your feet and get a feel for it.

"I really wanted to try rappelling." Nell mumbled behind him.

"Sam had all the equipment… what's his excuse?" He asked, turning around as he continued to walk.

"He didn't say."

Eric looked over the cliff. It was a hell of a view between the beach, the ocean, the sprawl of the City of Angels, and the mountains to the south. The sun was mercifully hidden from clouds but it met the water and shone bright in the distance, reminding him why he never tired of California vistas.

"Call him." Eric asked, not daring to question the SEAL himself. When he turned around again she had almost met him at the edge of the cliff.

"It's not like I'm going to change his mind."

He breathed out slowly before replying. "Yeah, I guess."

"It's a beautiful view." She said, chuckling in an ill-fated attempt to hide the disappointment in her tone. "Just like he promised."

"Probably looks better from the cliff face." Eric mused, turning to look at his partner.

"So, now what?"

"We could just climb down."

"Yeah, definitely. I got some rope in my car – just tie one end around your waist and I'll tie the other to that rock over there." She pointed to a watermelon sized outcropping and chuckled. "What could possibly go wrong?"

"I mean, it's probably what Sam would have done – maybe with actual harnesses but…" He trailed off.

"He would have used proper anchors. See all the holes in the grou-"

"I was kidding." He interrupted her sardonically.

"Sure you were. Seriously though, we can do it your way. I'll grab the rope."

"Hah. On second thought, I think I'm going to hit the waves. Want to come?"

"You mean swimming? No, I didn't bring a towel or anything."

"Seriously? I have a scooter and I still manage to never go anywhere without swim trunks and a towel."

"You've lived here your whole life, though."

"Whatever. You have underwear – or at least I assume you do." He grinned when her eyes widened. "You can use my towel."

"Oh, no. No! I'm not…" She trailed off and turned away as her cheeks turned a shade of rosy.

"Fine, go home. What is it, an hour's drive? I'll be sure to text you about how perfect the weather is." He replied snidely while admiring the scenery. It was an incredible day for a surf, and he wasn't about to pass it up just because his best friend was feeling prudish.

"Y-" She started, pointing an accusing finger at his chest. "Fine. But _you_ aren't telling anyone about this."

He laughed and started to walk toward his scooter. "I wouldn't dream of it."

"Huh, I can't believe they had one in your size." Eric admitted. The board rental shack had an 'adult' sized board for people between 90 and 120lb, and from 4'10" to 5'4". "Awe, it's like a kid's board." He teased, running his hand along the side of the board before turning and walking toward his scooter.

When she didn't respond right away he spun around just in time to get bonked on the top of his head with the tip of her board.

"Ow!" He yelped, rubbing his head and grumbling at her mischievous grin. He put his rented board down by the edge of the sand and started walking toward his scooter to put his wallet away. "I'm definitely telling Deeks you came surfing with me in your underwear." With that retort her eyes widened.

"Don't you dare, Beale." She threatened. The distinct surfboard-on-surfboard clunk rang out in the air before he heard her give chase. "Or I'll tell him how much beer you let me give Monty when you were babysitting."

He turned just before he reaching the lockbox on the back of his scooter. "First, Deeks would find that hilarious. Second, he _did_ find it hilarious when I told him about it three months ago." Until he said that he hadn't realized that for the first time ever he had her at a disadvantage – and he wasn't about to let her forget it. "What else you got?"

"I don't know, _E-bot_." She sneered.

"That's it." Eric teased, turning back to his scooter. He pulled his phone out of the open lockbox and hit the quick capture button but, by the time he turned toward her she was ready for him.

"Give me th– no!" She shrieked, grabbing at his phone with both hands. He pulled it out of her grip, tucking it beneath his arm and twisting away at the same time. Instead of trying to take it back she probed the exposed ribs on his side and before he could stop her she prodded the pressure point.

"Ah!" He yelled, dropping his phone and almost elbowing her in the head out of reflex. She dropped faster than him, scooped up his phone and took a few steps back. "Give that back!"

"No." She replied coyly, turning around and walking to the next stall where she had parked her car. Eric caught his eyes wandering down her bare back before he snapped himself out of it and gave chase.

* * *

**Author's Note: I don't know if the rest of you discovered it when you were teenagers like I did but there is a pressure point between your ribs, directly below your armpit which is very effective at making people drop things.**


	9. Save Me (part 2)

**Author's Note: Internet has been really stubborn lately, sorry this took so long. Per NCISnewbie's request, this is the morning after 'Save Me' and features just a little bit of friendly meddling :P**

**ncisnewbie: I like putting her in situations we will never see on the show; I hope it didn't seem out of character!**

**Lightning's Halo: I don't know, I sure wouldn't put it past him ;)**

* * *

"Mornin', Flo." Deeks chirped as Eric got in.

Seeing the coffee the detective had grabbed for him stopped Eric from closing the door right there and going back to bed. "Shaggy." Eric acknowledged wearily as he slumped into the passenger seat of Marty's old SUV. The worn in cloth seats may as well have been carpet draped over rocks, if it wasn't for the fact that he could just push his board through the windowless hatch door he would hate this car.

"You look like shit."

"And you're a ray of sunshine, as always." Eric riposted.

"Hah. Seriously though, how many did you have last night? I figured you would have learned your lesson from Callen's birthday."

"I'm not hung over, just had to DD for a friend in the middle of the night."

"Yeah, right." He replied dismissively before shifting into gear. The detective paused a moment as the vehicle accelerated before he realized that Eric wasn't joking. "Wait, you're serious? Who?"

"No one. Never mind." Eric mumbled, hoping to avoid the conversation entirely. He closed his eyes with the hopes of falling asleep and simultaneously tried to ignore the creaking of the steering column when Deeks turned the wheel - something he had asked the detective to get looked at no less than a dozen times by now. He felt along the side of the seat until he found the lever to recline the seat and with a single tug the seat just about fell backward, though he was too tired to jump from the shock. The beach was half an hour away and he was determined to spend at least part of that sleeping.

"Sure." He replied, dragging the first vowel before carrying on with a slight southern twang. "Is this particular _no one_ a redheaded Intelligence Analyst for one of them federal acronyms?"

"Ugh. Maybe." He groaned. When Deeks stifled a laugh he remained silent, absent mindedly holding onto the door with one hand as they turned a corner.

"I'm sorry, that's just too perfect. 2am on a surfing night and you charge off to her rescue in the middle of the night. Color me curious, Eric, is Mayor of the Friend-ZoneTM a salaried position?"

"Shut up." He growled back.

"Oh come on, if I stop bugging you then you'll _never_ make a move."

Eric scoffed. "How's Kensi?"

The detective laughed heartily at the jab. "Alright, point taken."

"You said this place was where you learned to surf?"

"Oh yeah, used to come here to escape my dad back in the day, beautiful little patch of sand off the highway that isn't half as peaceful as it looks from far away." Deeks explained, going on to talk about how he used to bring girls there in high school so he could show off.

* * *

She woke up very unwillingly, forced to face the day by a small band of light from the window that had found its way to her face and ripped her from her slumber. An instant after opening her eyes she decided the room was unreasonably bright and squeezed them shut again, hoping she would be able to go back to sleep.

Of course, she didn't. This wasn't her apartment, that was plainly obvious from the fact that her back hurt and she was still in the same clothes she wore last night. Her brain was quick to remind her that she needed water; of course getting water meant walking somewhere, walking somewhere meant she had to open her eyes and opening her eyes when it was light out meant probably not getting back to sleep again until it was dark out. After a great deal of stalling she convinced herself to open her eyes and stare at the white stucco roof above her head. Thankfully the overhead light was off but it was still bright as day in the room.

She groggily reached over to the coffee table for her phone, gracelessly sliding her hand along the wood in a sweeping motion until she bumped into something smooth and round. Before she had the time to realize what just happened she head the glass clank against the table and something spill on the carpet below.

"Damn." She muttered, turning to face the coffee table and squinting from the sunlight peeking under the curtain on window across the room. In a motion far too quick for her dehydrated brain she sat up, quickly being overwhelmed by the vodka headache. To her relief the glass was just water, after letting her head settle for a moment she debated just leaving it there and hoping it would dry before Eric got back from surfing but, judging by the amount of light in the room that wasn't very likely.

After talking herself into getting up off the couch she snooped through the various (mostly empty) closets on the main floor before finally finding a tea towel. Once she had the water cleaned up and after downing two glasses of water in hopes of quelling her headache she pondered what to do until Eric got back. His kitchen was well stocked but, she knew she wasn't brave enough to use his kitchen and eat his food without him around. To settle her grumbling stomach she stole a banana from a fruit bowl and returned to the couch to check her phone.

The most recent of three unread messages were from Eric, telling her to make herself at home and that he would be back by 11 if she still wanted a ride. That still gave her three quarters of an hour to kill, and her phone's battery wasn't going to last much longer. She knew that she didn't want to get a ride from Rose, if she called Kensi she would never live it down and Deeks was with Eric.

So, she was going to have to wait. Instead of reading through one of his dinosaur/paleontology books (he really was an overgrown kid at heart) she decided to make good on his offer and take a shower. After rummaging through her purse quickly she found a wall plug and put her phone on the charger, then went off to his bathroom.

The Beale bathroom was as tidy as she had come to expect, nothing outside of a drawer except his shower stuff which she gave a quick sniff before disrobing - apparently today she was going to smell like an Irish lumberjack.

It wasn't until she was under the hot water that she realized how normal it felt showering at his place, she left her clothes in a pile by the door of the shower stall like she did at her place. It was such a little thing but examining it and the fact that apparently her partner cleaned himself head to toe with one bottle kept her mind occupied until the water ran cold. She got out reluctantly, not entirely convinced she was awake enough but that changed quickly when she got out her foot landed in a small puddle of lukewarm water.

Out of instinct she grabbed the frame of the stall door and shivered from the outpouring of adrenaline but, fortunately the shower mat on the bottom of the stall kept her from slipping.

Her blood ran cold again a fraction of a second later when she saw that all her clothes were dripping wet.

* * *

After he got back he spend a few moments just studying her. She had apparently fallen asleep on his chair – that wasn't really unexpected – what was unexpected was that she was wearing his clothes. A pair of his shorts, presumably a belt and the Spiderman shirt he'd had since high school. Her hair was wrapped in a towel and her mouth hung open a bit, just enough for her to snore softly. While making his way over to the window he noticed one of his Paleontology books on her lap.

"Morning, sunshine." He said, pulling open the curtain on the opposite wall.

When the light bathed the chair she almost jumped out of the chair, her eyes shot open and she immediately searched the room. If she had been reclined any further he was sure she would have toppled backward.

"Damnit, Eric!" She hissed, lying back again and rubbing her forehead with the back of her hand.

As he made his way over to the couch to sit when he noticed that she had closed her eyes again. "Any particular reason you're wearing my clothes?"

"Your shower leaks."

"All showers leak, what's that got to do with anything?"

"After I got out my clothes were in a puddle of water."

Eric couldn't help but stare at her in disbelief for a moment. "Did you just leave your stuff right next to the door?"

"What? No." She replied, stirring and turning her head to face forward. "I left them at least a couple feet away…"

He hummed contemplatively, he had never seen so much as a puddle outside his shower. "That's unusual… huh. How long were you in there?"

"How long does your hot water tank last?"

"You used all my hot water?"

She brushed him off. "You'll get more."

"You realize there's a water shortage, right?"

"There's _always_ a water shortage."

"Drawbacks to living in paradise, I guess - also who showers with hot water in LA anyways?"

"This girl." She quipped, lazily pointing to herself with both thumbs in a mockery of how Deeks would do the same. "Every time. Doesn't matter if its 30 below or 100 above."

"You're weird."

"Yup. So my clothes are in your dryer, they're probably fine now."

"Yeah." He mumbled before putting his feet up on the coffee table and lying back. "You know I was going to wear that shirt tomorrow."

"Oh, were you? Poor Eric." She teased, her voice heavy with disingenuous concern. He noticed her looking down at the shirt a moment but, she must have seen him in the corner of her eye because the next thing he knew she pulled the lever, snapping the chair back from its reclined state so she could turn it toward him. "I'm sure you'll figure something out. I've only been wearing it a few minutes, it's probably still fine."

He smiled briefly in response before changing the subject to the book still on her lap. "How far did you make it?"

It took her a few seconds to catch on. "Oh, I was just flipping through the bookmarks. I feel like whoever wrote this book is just trying to mess with you – I refuse to believe Chalicotherium ever existed."

It took Eric a moment to remember what she was talking about. "The donkey-headed ape? Oh, god, I showed that to Deeks and I have never heard him laugh so hard before or since."

"Uh, yeah. Also the little raptor thing with the ten foot long neck?"

"Come on, are you saying you wouldn't get bored putting together fossilized bones all day? I would've tried to make one that looks like a race car."

* * *

**Author's Note: There we go, sorry these updates are coming so slowly. Any more requests?**


	10. Move or Made Up?

**Author's note: Nell upgrades her laptop - which is never as simple as it ought to be. Eric gets to play tech support. The next couple chapters are more show-related, let me know which you guys prefer!**

**NCISnewbie: Thanks!**

* * *

"I'm telling you, you'll have to reformat it."

"What? No! I can't."

"You're lucky that's all the damage you did – I thought you would have checked before upgrading?"

"I did! The guy at the store said it was the same."

"He lied. Look." He said, showing her the two different (though identical from a distance) RAM sticks and pointing at the individual memory modules. "Look at the model number printed on the memory modules; they aren't the same ergo, it's not the same stick."

"They need to be the same?"

"Yeah, they output data to a bus which the computer reads, there's no order to it so if there are two different kinds of memory module whose output needs to be encoded differently the data just becomes unreadable."

She blinked at him but, after a few seconds she seemed to understand what he had said. "Well, Professor Beale, can you save any of my cat pictures?"

He chuckled in response, recalling that she didn't care for cats. "You're so lucky you have a technical analyst for a friend." He responded, opening his bag and pulling out a laptop and a SATA-to-USB cable. "It'll take a while but if you have a USB stick or external hard drive I'll save and transfer what I can."

"You just have all this stuff ready to go on a whim?"

"You never know when there will be a damsel in distress."

"Oh yes, speaking of distressed damsels what are we going to do while your computer works its magic?"

"Do you have some beer?"

"Do I have beer." She guffawed. "There's some ale in the fridge and a bit of lager on the counter I think."

"Hmm... I'll have one of each to start."

"To start? I think you're overestimating my hospitality."

"I don't. This will probably take a couple hours."

"What ever shall we do in the meantime?" She drawled.

"Hmm. Have you ever played Movie or Made up?"

"What?"

"Basically, you either quote a movie or make something up on the spot and I have to guess which. If I'm right, you drink, and vice versa."

"That sounds boring."

"Well, yeah. If you quote good movies. Here's an example." He cleared his throat before making the best over-the-top angry pirate voice to accentuate the ridiculousness of the quote. "_I'd strike at the sun if it pleased me!_"

She giggled, probably more at the impression than the line. "No. I refuse to believe anyone but you could come up with that. You made it up."

"Moby Dick rerelease. Look it up."

"No." She responded with palpable disbelief, not that he blamed her.

"It's true!" He whipped out his phone and searched for the phrase, the first result was of course a quotes compilation of the cinematic travesty. "See?"

She took his phone from him and studied the screen intently for a few seconds. "That _so_ doesn't count. No one could have gotten that."

"Where's my ale, woman?" Eric asked rousingly, continuing with the pirate impression. When she turned and got up he added, "Your turn!"

When she disappeared around the corner he turned to his laptop which had awoken. He turned on the power for her computer and bridged his laptop with her hard drive, now it was just a matter of figuring out how much damage the non-QVL RAM did. With any luck it was simply a resource queuing issue that had corrupted a few files critical to the OS before it made a mess of things she wouldn't be able to replace.

With a few taps he had the diagnostic software open and it was trying to map the hard drive, so he set the laptop on her coffee table and put his feet up. It was going to be a protracted process.

"Here, you can have this awful heavy ale I bought by mistake." She announced from the kitchen.

"But I'm in the mood for something light."

"Then you shouldn't have just asked for ale." She replied in a lecturing tone. After setting down the beers she turned to her TV and rummaged through her console games. "Oh, I thought of a line." She threw him a controller and plopped herself down on the couch next to him, almost sitting on his leg. "_Storms dyin' down – How can you tell? – Less sharks flying around."_

"Movie. I can't believe I was excited for that train wreck."

"Oh come on, It was entertaining."

"Yeah but, I still wish I could have it erased from my memory."

As she took her obliged drink he sifted through the thousands of terrible movies he had seen over the years. For his next quote he did his best suave-teenager voice. "_The only real sin, is regret_."

"Oh my effing God. You saw that too?" She replied with a snort.

"Did you just censor yourself?"

"Shut up, I have a lot of young cousins."

Eric just smiled back and took a drink.

"Shut up!"

"What are we playing?"

"You'll see."

* * *

**Author's Note: Bonus points to whoever names all three of those movies :)**

***Insert obligatory statement endearing readers to let me know what they think with a review here***


	11. War Cries

**Author's Note: I've been trying to avoid chapters like this because they really don't fit with the show but, this came to mind too coherently to not post. This chapter takes place after War Cries (which I'm sure you figured out already, haha).**

* * *

"So." Eric interjected warmly as they silently gathered their stuff and got ready to go home. "Another day, another hulking mercenary in the hospital wishing he hadn't picked a fight with the featherweight intelligence analyst, huh?"

She lifted an eyebrow in response before pulling her backpack over her shoulder and pushing past him.

"Nell?" He asked, confused.

"Night, Eric." She replied in a light voice.

To anyone else it would have sounded perfectly normal; it was, after all, the same parting comment she had used just about every day for the last three years. Tonight's was different though, the pensive silence of the evening's wrap-up put him on edge – maybe just because of what had happened to her. She was tough, sure; it wasn't like she wasn't resilient enough to get past it on her own but, the last time she had a close call she asked him to walk her to her car and she was at least detectably shaken up. That's how normal people are supposed to react.

"Hey, Nell!" He called after her, jogging for a few steps to catch up. When he reached her side he nudged her shoulder with his playfully, hoping to coax her into talking. "Hey. Can I walk you to your car?"

"Sure." Came her flat reply as they reached the stairs down to the main floor.

"I just need to go back and get my bag, one sec." He replied, giving her a quick tap on the shoulder with the back of his hand before turning to go back to Ops. As he took his second step back to Ops he heard her shoes clacking their way down the stairs so he spun around and walked over to the railing. "Nell!"

He watched her hand close into a fist when he called. "What!" She yelled back.

For a few seconds he froze, her voice echoed in his head while he stared at his partner who so rarely lost her temper. In all the time he had known her he could count the times she yelled like that on one hand; and each time he had said something to piss her off. Usually, though, he knew what he had done wrong.

"C- can you wait for a few seconds, please?"

"Eric, I _really_ want to get out of here." After she spoke she took a couple steps toward the railing on the first landing. When she leaned against the railing and fished out her phone, he could only hope that meant she intended to wait for him.

"I'll be fast." He replied quickly before spinning around and jogging back into Ops for his bag. The dreadful feeling in his gut convinced him as he ran that she wasn't going to be there when he got back so what started as a light jog turned into a sprint. He grabbed his bag and tossed it over one shoulder before taking off running for the stairs.

When he reached the railing he saw her right where he left her, looking down at the bull pen from the first landing while presumably simmering. At some point she had put her phone away and adopted a crossed arm and far more intimidating stance. He took the stairs down two at a time and almost ran right into her when she abruptly pushed away from the railing and turned to face him.

"Ready?" She asked impatiently.

"Yup, let's go." He replied with a quick huff to catch his breath. Once again the pair set off in complete silence which Eric was determined to fill. They hadn't made it down two steps when he decided to try and bring it up again. "So, I guess you prepared him for being shanked in prison, huh?" He couldn't help but grin at the thought; when Callen had told everyone she was alright he almost threw his earpiece to the floor of Ops like a football celebration. Just like always she proved that his fears were completely unfounded.

After a moment that seemed to stretch on forever she responded in a voice that was completely devoid of the enthusiasm he had been hoping for. "Guess so."

_She's probably just tired, stop badgering her about it._

Just when she replied he noticed her arm lift from her side before she caught it and stopped herself; he could swear she was reaching for the cut above her eye. When they reached the bottom of the stairs and turned he decided to stop beating around the bush and ask. "You are… okay, right?"

When he looked down she had closed her eyes contemplatively while they walked past the long-since abandoned bull pen. "I've been better."

"So have I, I mean, when I heard he was…" He trailed off, turning his eyes forward again and quavering at the memory. "I just knew there wasn't a damned thing I could do from here." In an effort to comfort them both he reached his arm around her shoulders for a quick squeeze. "But you're here now and that's what matters."

"And if I wasn't?"

"You mean if he…?" Eric asked, his arm dangling over her shoulders longer than he intended while he looked over to her only to see her eyes locked on the door in front of them. "If you weren't I… I don't know what I would do."

"You probably wouldn't open with an 'I told you so', though, right?" She muttered, shrugging his arm away.

At that moment the blood in his veins turned to slush. It was all such a blur now – with all the stress and subsequent excitement he couldn't really recall - was that what came out of his mouth? Was that what she heard when his heart almost jumped out of his chest with the relief of seeing her in one piece? His ability to verbalize what he was thinking was shoddy at the best of times but, that was a step beyond even for him.

He stopped in his tracks. "Nell I – I'm sorry. I didn't mean that."

She scoffed at the apology. "Why not? I mean you were right." At first she kept walking but, when she noticed he wasn't beside her (she didn't even have to look up) she stopped in the hall in front of him.

He felt his eyes widen. "What? You're here, I think that proves I was wrong – _as usual_."

When she finally responded her voice was heavy. "Eric, if I had listened to you this never would have happened. You say you're not cut out for field work." She huffed. "Well, maybe I'm not either."

"Nell." He replied, taking a few steps toward her which prompted the redhead to turn somewhat – still not quite facing him. "I want you to stay in Ops because I worry about you, don't think for a second that it's because I don't think you can do it."

"It's not like I tripped, Eric! I did everything wrong!" She yelled, her voice reverberating off the walls. "Everything! I was alone in a room with an unrestrained man twice my size, I got between him and the door, and then I reached for my gun instead of getting out of there!" Her breathing was deep but erratic and her small hands were once again balled into fists.

Before she finished Eric had closed what little distance was between them and put his hands on either of her shoulders. "Hey. This is not your fault. We thought he was the good guy - he was _helping _us."

"So? I should have never let my guard down." She replied quickly, looking at everything else in the corridor but him.

He lowered his head slightly in an attempt to make her stop avoiding him. "Maybe not but, what were you supposed to do? Restrain him for being bigger than you?"

"I don't know! I don't –"

Suddenly instinct took over. Before she had a chance to finish he interrupted her with a hug, wrapping his arms all the way around her arms and ribs like he had the last time something like this happened. It took her a second or two to adjust to the sudden contact but, her rigid stance eventually eased a little and she let him take some of the weight off her own feet. A moment later she let out the ragged breath she had been holding and buried her face in his shoulder. He felt her slender arms coil around his chest and when she squeezed back he was at ease for the first time since she got back.

For a while they just stood there, wrapped in each other's arms and rocking back and forth lightly. He had no idea what he was supposed to say; if she was frustrated from coding he could always offer advice, when her family was stressing her out he could at least offer an outside opinion but, on the subject of working in the field he was about as authoritative as a gerbil. So instead he kept his mouth shut and listened as angry, heavy breaths turned shaky, and as shaky breaths turned to sobs.

"You're okay. It's over." He reassured her, lifting his head away from hers so he could kiss the top of her head.

**Author's note: More of this? Never do this again? What do you guys think?**

**Next one takes place after 'Zero Days'.**


	12. I'm Not

**Author's note: Eric had a rough day. Post 'Zero Days'.**

**Dubigail: Thanks!**

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_"__Still awake?"_

A notification bar along the top of his screen showed him the text from Nell. It was nearly two in the morning; he had barely four and a half hours to get some sleep before work tomorrow but, no matter what he did his heart refused to stop thumping in his chest. Every little noise was amplified and impossible to ignore at the same time.

He looked away from his phone for a moment, rubbing his eyes and trying to focus on the roof. It felt like hours ago that he had taken off his glasses and laid down with the intention of going to sleep. When he looked back at his phone and began to respond he realized it had in fact been just over two hours.

_"__How'd you know?"_

He barely had time to switch back to the article he was reading before another notification appeared at the top of his screen.

_"__Call it an educated guess. You alright?"_

_"__I'm fine. Shouldn't you be asleep?"_

_"__I've been trying two 3 hour cycles lately. You're sure?"_

The first response that crossed his mind was of course, to lie again - to tell her what he had coached himself to tell everyone over the years. If it was anyone else in the world he wouldn't have thought twice about it but, instead he was staring at the stucco on his roof again debating how to respond – debating how honest he was going to be. Before he even really realized what he had said the message was away.

_"__I'm not."_

The tremor in his fingers only got worse after sending the message; now his heart was racing for two reasons. It hadn't been five seconds of staring at his phone when he couldn't stand waiting for her response anymore and switched back to the article he was reading, hoping that this would be the one to finally calm him down.

His phone ringing caught him completely off guard, when the Castlevania ringtone began to blare he just about threw it across the room.

He tapped accept but, after doing so he took a few seconds to try to compose himself.

"Nell?"

"Hey Eric." She chirped, sounding way too awake.

"How's biphasic life?"

"It's okay. I mean, I don't think I'm more energetic or anything so that sucks. Definitely making the best use of a 24 hour gym though."

He had never actually worked up the courage to suggest they go to the gym together, he would just see her there occasionally; though he had definitely noticed her absence in the last month. "Yeah. I tried it back in my undergrad - staying up til 3, sleeping until a 730 class, and then sleeping again in my spare before labs started in the afternoon."

"Eric Beale the party animal; I never would have guessed."

"Haha, yeah, let's go with that."

She giggled lightly. "So what's up? Can't sleep?"

"No." He responded heavily, letting a full breath out before continuing. "I tried everything. I went for a run, I finished my book, I cleaned my computer…"

She hummed thoughtfully before responding. "Did you… imagine the butterflies?"

He opened his mouth to respond but, he couldn't think of what to say. Butterflies, the ocean, a thunderstorm, a campfire; he had gone through them all.

After letting the silence ring out for a moment she continued in a more hushed tone. "Wanna talk about it?"

His eyebrow twitched just at the mention of it. Suddenly his hands were shaking again and he could smell the gunpowder from a hundred bullets blasting through brick and skittering off metal around him.

"N- not really."

"Alright." She took a breath before continuing. "Well, tell you what, Mr. Beale? I'll let you in on a little secret."

At first he didn't even realize it but, the corners of his mouth had curled upward a little bit when she said that. "Oh yeah?"

"_You_ have to promise to not tell everyone this time; this isn't like the cosplaying thing."

A chuckle escaped his lips before he could stop it. "Come on, everyone agrees that you would make a cute Elisabeth; you already wear blue all the time."

"_Eric_." Came her stern response.

"Fine. My lips are sealed."

"Okay. When I was in college, especially in my first year, I'd get homesick a lot because… I'd never really been away from home before then. In the first week of November I basically asked her to come take me home, instead she told me to do something for her."

When she paused he almost sat up in anticipation, though he did his best to hide it in his voice. "What?"

"She had me put her on speakerphone and lie down."

Suffice to say that wasn't what he was expecting. After waiting a few seconds he hesitantly replied. "Uh, am I supposed to…?"

"Put me on speaker and lie down, Eric."

"Okay, okay." He replied, hitting the megaphone-shaped button and rolling over onto his back. "Ready."

"Then she'd read to me, just like when I was a kid."

He chuckled softly. "Seriously?"

"Quiet, Beale." She said with a shush. "It'll help. Close your eyes."

"They're closed." He complied.

"Is the light off?"

"It is."

"Perfect. Any requests?"

He grinned. "Ooh, I know, tell the one where a _beautiful_ princess is having problems with her computer so the dashing knight braves LA traffic to come to her rescue and then drinks all her beer."

"_Har, har_. How about the one where a _beautiful _princess is accused of plagiarizing her history paper and had to take it all the way to the Dean?"

"Seriously? They thought you plagiarized?"

"Shush. So this was back in university, I think that was… 2006? No, that can't be right." She paused, mumbling something while Eric smiled at the thought of her counting back with her fingers. "Yup, 2006, God I feel old sometimes. So, Mr Basim had never really liked me, I refuted pretty much every statistic he used to justify himself which ordinarily made my teachers like me, I don't know what his problem was. Anyway, he assigned a paper on the industrialization of South America but he limited us to reporting on…"

She wasn't even halfway through the story when she heard a familiar snort. He had been silent for the last five minutes or so but, now she could hear long, slow breaths through her phone.

"Eric?"

For a few seconds she listened but, he didn't respond.

"Night, Eric." She whispered sleepily, hanging up and putting her phone down on her night stand.

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**Author's Note: Too fluffy? More like this? Less like this? Let me know with a review!**


	13. Blushing

**Author's Note: Reference to Season 5 Episode 4. This chapter is sort of a non-sequitur, you'll understand why when I get around to posting the next chapter. It seems like you guys really like the ones that are based on episodes so I will definitely try to write more of them!**

**Rinna: That is high praise! I have read some truly impressive stories on this site. I've wanted to write something similar for months but sadly I can't think of anything :\**

**Whatsintheboxx: I remember where I was and what I was doing when I got those three emails from those reviews being posted - thanks so much :)**

**Neric Fan 123: Thanks! I am trying - the problem is I don't have a lot of spare time - also writing is hard!**

**Lightning's Halo: I was definitely asking myself 'is this even believable anymore' before posting ch11 and 12, I'm glad you disagree!**

**Ncisnewbie: It means a lot to hear that from you.**

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"Ho-" He started. It wasn't often that Callen was speechless but, on the rare occasion it did happen it seemed that the Ops pair were always similarly unable to find words.

Nell and Eric had tracked down the man that helped Reznikov get into the United States all those years ago. They had been sifting through the old case with the hopes of finding something to help Callen link the man to his father when Nell stumbled upon the record of his citizenship forty years ago - only a couple years after Callen was born. With a quick call to one of Eric's friends in Immigration Services they found out that a man named Piotr Mazur was used as Reznikov's reference; the man had been committed to a care home in Pasadena several years ago.

"Nell… I." The senior agent finally abandoned his search for words and opted instead to hug the pint sized analyst. If Eric wasn't sure he was mistaken he'd say the senior agent looked a little misty eyed as he hugged her, his embrace was so soft it looked like he was afraid he'd break her.

She giggled softly when he pulled her into his chest. "You know us, happy to help."

"You're incredible." He breathed, just before releasing her and taking a step back. "You both are." Callen added as he clapped Eric's shoulder affectionately.

After a few more seconds of Callen staring at the picture on the main screen, Eric broke the silence. "I sent the coordinates to your phone."

With a parting smile Callen practically ran out of Ops and toward his car. Eric waited a moment while Nell smiled vacantly and processed everything that happened before he offered her a high five – which she promptly accepted.

As she walked over to the island Eric noticed her cheeks seemed like they were a subtle shade of pink even in the blue glow of Ops.

"Are you blushing?"

"Hu- no." When she looked up and saw him grinning at her she quickly diverted her eyes to her tablet. In a quick motion she pushed a few stray strands hair away from her right eye and took a deep breath. "Why would I be blushing?"

"Because it's Callen." Eric met her at the other side of the island and leaned over just enough that their eyes were level. "I mean, I remember when he patted me on the back and said 'good job' for the first time six years ago."

A muted cackle escaped her lips at his admission. "You're such a dork."

Eric shrugged. "He's like the cool big brother I never had."

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**Author's Note: Reviews! Requests! I always like to hear from you guys.**


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